ISHWORLD WEEKLY COLUMN

August 7, 2026

667 words

“Tan envy?”

What do you call it when racism is perpetrated against people of color by people who sunbath to darken their skin? 

By Ishmael-Lateef Ahmad

Columnist/Blogger At Large

I was born in Mississippi, grew to adulthood “Up North” and then lived in Alabama and Florida while working as a journalist. Everywhere I have lived it is common for white people to relish a summer tan, to darken their skin color.

In Missouri and Illinois, I was used to the summer tanning ritual and didn’t think too much about it. Then I heard about a 20th Century race riot in Chicago that started on segregated beaches on Lake Michigan. One was during the riot infested “Red Summer of 1919” when a black youth named Eugene Williams was swimming in Lake Michigan but ended up on a white segregated beach.

Attacked by some white beachgoers, young Williams was stoned and drowned. When police did nothing about it, black men responded in anger and racial clashes ensured from July 27 to August 12. At least 38 people died (23 blacks and 15 whites), more than 500 people were injured and some 1,000 black families were made homeless, along with the destruction of many black-owned businesses. Seven regiments of Illinois militia totalling several thousand men were called in to restore order. It was considered by some to be the greatest riot of the 1919 Red Summer.

While racial violence ensued in dozens of American cities, some historians have said the name Red Summer of 1919 stemmed from the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.

So, upon learning about a race riot that began on a beach where non-blacks were getting some sun, I began to consider the how comes of it all – race, skin color, the race hating?

Years later, while in Alabama I was reminded about the love for sun tanning by non-blacks when a co-worker returned from her vacation and put her sun-tanned arm next to mine and said “I’m almost there!”

Later, while living in Central Florida I found it curious that from a distance I could not always tell if a brown-skinned man walking toward me from a distance was either black, Hispanic or a deeply tanned white person. Only as we got closer could I distinguish who the approaching person was.

During the 80’s and 90’s I also studied race and diversity during my time in Alabama. That was when I learned that the brown in black people’s skin is due to what is called melanin, a bodily chemical that protects human skin from damage from sunlight. And that when people darken from a tan due to exposure to sunlight or sun lamps, they can tan due to the remnants of melanin left in their skin. That explains why people of European descent have lighter skin color because in colder climates they have more need for the sun and less need for darker-skinned protection from it.

Also, it was in Florida that I experienced more open racism than I can recall experiencing in either Alabama or Mississippi.

It was in Florida that I coined the phrase ‘tan envy” and have used it from time to time since then. It helps me to understand something about race and the world around us. Yet, it does not eliminate the evils of racism.

I ask to be judged on my character, not the color of my skin. You can like or dislike me for many reasons but if you use the God-given birth color of my skin to determine who I am and how I should be treated, that is the problem that needs to be overcome.

Don’t envy the tan I was born with and make me lesser than thy, while I love and appreciate you for the tan you create with the help of the sun.

(ISHWORLD: The International Search for Humanity is a complimentary column created and distributed to media by freelance journalist & blogger Ishmael-Lateef Ahmad. Based in St. Louis, Mo., he can be reached via ishworldcolumn@gmail.com or his website at https://payhip.com/ISHWORLDcolumns).

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